I was disappointed to read an article in which the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance supervisor argued with my concern for Sydenham Hospital – concern that is shared by many residents in Wallaceburg.

It is simply inaccurate for anyone to claim that the hospital currently has the funding and support it needs.

Families and patients in Wallaceburg know that Liberal and Conservative cuts to health care have pushed our hospitals to the breaking point. In Wallaceburg alone, the hospital has seen bed closures and cuts to lab services and, last year, had to fight to keep the emergency room open.

The people of Wallaceburg and Chatham-Kent deserve so much better.

But documents obtained from the Wynne government through a Freedom of Information request show that the funding shortage at the Sydenham Hospital was made even worse by the Liberal government’s decision to strip Sydenham of its ‘small and rural’ designation – which provided some extra funding for vital services. The documents reveal that the Wynne government made this bad choice for bureaucratic reasons – and not with patients and families in mind.

I am determined to do something to fix the problems in our health care system. I wish Kathleen Wynne – and those running our health system – shared this same goal.

I'm concerned about the wait times for surgeries and emergency care. I'm shocked by the number of patients who are being forced to wait on gurneys in hallways because our hospitals are dangerously overcrowded. And I’m appalled that hospitals are still being forced to cut services and staff, like 26 full-time and 15 part-time nurses and health care workers who will lose their jobs at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance in the coming months.

Enough is enough.

The permanent solution is for hospitals to get the funding they need to cut the wait times and deliver the high-quality care that nurses and health care workers are trained to deliver.

But in order to get through the next year – until voters can choose a new government – Sydenham Hospital needs every dollar it can get. And it needs everyone in this community to be focused on telling the Wynne government to stop cutting health care.

If Kathleen Wynne and her supporters would just listen to patients, families and front-line health care workers, they would know that hospitals in Wallaceburg and Chatham-Kent need more funding.

Ontario's an incredible place – and our health care workers are world class and deeply caring. Imagine how we could deliver health care if we had proper funding for every hospital.

It's time for investment in hospitals and health care – not more Wynne and Conservative cuts.